VacationSelector
Bryggen across Vågen, Bergen
BergenBryggen across Vågen
The adobe New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe
Santa FeThe adobe New Mexico Museum of Art

Photos: Bergen by Abdullah Guc, Pexels License; Santa Fe by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Bergen or Santa Fe?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Bergen for

  • getting around
  • nightlife
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Bergen’s own page.

Choose Santa Fe for

  • day trips
  • shopping
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Fe’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Bergen 20, Santa Fe 5: Bergen leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Bergen 47, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Bergen 55, Santa Fe 66: Santa Fe leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Bergen 40, Santa Fe 22: Bergen leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bergen 88, Santa Fe 80: Bergen leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Bergen 38, Santa Fe 70: Santa Fe leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Bergen 60, Santa Fe 45: Bergen leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Bergen 74, Santa Fe 40: Bergen leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Bergen 33, Santa Fe 62: Santa Fe leads by 29 points.
Affordability. Bergen 12, Santa Fe 30: Santa Fe leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bergen 58, Santa Fe 55: Bergen leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bergen 32, Santa Fe 55: Santa Fe leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bergen and Santa Fe.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Bergen
46match

Wins on getting around and nightlife with your weighting.

Santa Fe
Best match
49match

Wins on day trips and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Bergen in July

20 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
159 mmrain in the month
15 °Csea
18 hdaylight a day

Santa Fe in July

31 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
60 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
BergenSanta Fe

Where the figures come from

Santa Fe's station stands 199 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Santa Fe has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bergen: 1991-2020 normals, Bergen / Florida (1.2 km from centre). Santa Fe: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Fe / Cieneguilla (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBergenSanta Fe
Official languageNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi-
CurrencyNorwegian Krone (NOK)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 112, ambulance 113, fire 110911
Elevation5 m2,134 m
Main airportBergen Airport, Flesland (BGO)12 km from centre64 non-stop destinationsSanta Fe Municipal Airport (SAF)12 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBergenSanta Fe
City population291,18987,505
People per km²3,339645
Museums within 10 km3110
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bergen or Santa Fe somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.